Tag Archives: photo

As I am sure most of you are aware, there is a rather large hurricane slowly advancing on the state of Florida. I was doing okay; Andy and I have been keeping our gas tanks topped off, our go bags ready, and a decent cache of non-perishables on hand, but I am starting to freak out a little bit. Less so because of the storm because at this point all we can do here in the panhandle is wait, and more so because the entire state has gone bat-shit crazy. Seriously, I cringe every time I have to go into a store. I am just waiting to see a soccer mom get into a fist fight with an accountant over the last bottle of water, while the neighbor from down the road is stealing batteries and flash lights from their carts while they fight. Having done all that we can do, Andy and I have been spending a lot of time at home, just to stay out of it. Unfortunately, all my anxious energy can only be translated into so many baked goods before I need to go on a supply run, so I’ve been watching Netflix while doing laundry while distracting myself with Pinterest. One of the things I came across was images by photographer Bella Kotak.

Artist Isabelle Chapuis teamed up with Duy Anh Nhan Duc to collaborate on a series of flower enhanced portraits. The first being”Dandelion” and the second called “Etamine”. The artists have some really beautiful philosophies and ideas that lead to the gorgeous images below, and you can read all about it in the original article and see more of portraits on Issabelle’s website, but I want to take a step back and tell you what my first thought was when I saw these images.

As soon as I opened the article, I had a flash back to a much younger me, hunting around my backyard for the ever present dandelion weeds. We weren’t really sod or landscaping people; we kept the grass mowed…most of the time, but that was it. I remembered the delight I felt when I would find a stalk with its downy head still intact, how I would close my eyes tight, puff out my cheeks, and blow the seeds into the air, allowing the breeze to carry my wishes to far away lands. I looked at these photos, and all I could think was “they’re covered in wishes“: some still holding their possibilities tight, and others spent and covering the subjects in a veil of hoping and dreaming.

A little silly, right? But with all of the dandelions used for this project, you know someone had to have tucked a fervent little wish into at least one of the hundreds of seed pods.

I grew up in a very small town. My mother used to joke that I better behave myself because if I didn’t she would find out before I even came home. As nice as everyone was, there was this sameness that was indirectly but strongly encouraged. I knew pretty early on that I wasn’t meant to stay there. A lot of my high school years were spent studying and padding out my college applications with extracurriculars, but in my bits and pieces of down time, I devoured book after book, mentally cataloging all of the places I wanted to go. They weren’t the happiest years of my life, but I remember how powerful the “what if” felt, how ripe and full of possibilities the future was. When I saw these images by photographer Oleg Oprisco (facebook page) it reminded me so strongly of that time.

I think one of the saddest things about getting older is the narrowing of possibility. Not that you can’t go out and conquer the world at 60, but that “you can be anything” is chipped away bit by bit as you make choices. College, career, mortgages, spouses, children; never necessarily bad choices, just ones that force you life into a more defined shape. Can you tell that my birthday is next week and I am thinking about the fact that 30 is right around the corner?

Although I’ve never truly experience a literal face plant, I am familiar with the accompanying feeling. At least once or twice a month, i’m just good like that.

This also reminds me a little of college. One of the apartments I lived in was near some of the most popular bars around campus, and I saw quite a few literal interpretations of these frames. Except they usually weren’t wearing any shoes by that point.

The baby bug is going around at the office this week. One of the guys I work with just welcomed baby #3 to the family, and all of us females are getting the vapors over tiny shoes and onesies. I never really wanted kids until I was about 23, then I changed my tune to “well maybe, someday” and then after I met Andy it turned into a full blown “yeah, we’re totally going to have kids”. The last two years my biological clock has been on overdrive, but the timing hasn’t been right. Fortunately, two of my close friends had babies last year so I can live vicariously for a little longer. As if the week wasn’t wasn’t baby-rific enough, this gorgeous pregnancy shoot showed up on my blog feed. I will be buying this outfit the moment I find out I am pregnant…well and a lot of yoga pants, but you know what I mean.